


Hope, is a wonderful thing.

by Vykyll



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canonical Character Death, DA 2 to DA I, Death in Childbirth, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Love, Mage Abuse and Oppression, Mage Rights, Mages vs. Templars, Mild Blood, Mild Language, One Shot, POV First Person, Rite of Tranquility, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 16:03:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12963075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vykyll/pseuds/Vykyll
Summary: "I always held out hope that one day I would speak to you, and then I did. Now I'm on the outside, speaking more and I like it."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A one-shot of a What-if...I don't want to give too much away, but I marked as mature for a couple of things within.





	Hope, is a wonderful thing.

I stand there watching them come into the Gallows once more. Sixth time this past fortnight. Umpteenth time in many years.  
  
I do often wonder why they come here, when clearly some of them are mages boldly walking these callous grounds. Makes me wonder who most of them are when I watch them all.  
  
One in particular I have always watched, from the moment several years ago till now. He looks changed, looks sullen and wane when he trails behind the others. His shoulders are slumped then raised when the others talks to them, then fall again when they don't look.  
  
I do wonder what happened for this man to be that way now, when he was all smiles and grins, to look like someone kicked his dog.  
  
They are talking to the Knight-Captain again, wonder what they speak about. Not like it would matter to me, I very rarely get spoken to as it is, let alone told what was happening anywhere. I have to find out on my own if I wanted news of some sort.  
  
The man looks over his shoulders with his eyes downcast again, trying his hardest not to look at the Knight-Captain.  
  
I shake my head under my hood, then stand still when I hear Ser Karras's voice barking. I hear him storm out the Templar hall with others, but I keep still so he doesn't notice me, not like that helps sometimes.  
  
But thankfully, he looked to have other matters to deal with when he leaves the Gallows. The group of people that came in all look at him going to the boats, but the one who looked sullen shuffles on his feet looking dejected.  
  
I make a decision there and then to walk over, to say something to him. Highly doubt he would speak to me as it is, but I want to try, nonetheless.  
  
My hood is nearly over my eyes when I slowly walk over, my hands tucked in my sleeves across my stomach. I feel my heart get that little bit faster the closer I get to the dejected man.  
  
He slowly looks up at me the closer I get, slightly tilting his head to one side. I can clearly see the colour of his eyes once more, I want to smile but I keep it hidden for now.  
  
"Can, can I help you?" he asks me quietly when I stop a few feet away.  
  
I just stand there looking at him, looking at everything in his wane face, "Why are you so sad?"  
  
The mans eyebrows rise slightly looking over his shoulder at the others, they were too busy talking to even care what he was doing and looks back at me, "Its, its a long story.. er?"  
  
"Alison," I tell him dipping my head slightly, "But I prefer Ali, if you will."  
  
"Hello Ali," the man smiles slightly, "I'm Anders, should you even be speaking to me?" he then asks quietly.  
  
I just shrug, "Probably not. What else can they do to me," and pull the hood from my head.  
  
Anders eyes go huge looking at me, skimming over my face and hair before looking over his shoulder again, "Makers breath. You shouldn't be speaking to me at all, Ali."  
  
"Why? As I said, what else can they do to me?"  
  
His worried eyes look back at me again, swallowing sharply, then just takes my arm and guides me away from his friends, guides me away from everyone to a secluded part of the Gallows.  
  
"How long?" he asks running a hand down his face, his blond hair looked greasy to me, unwashed in sometime, "How long have you been tranquil?"  
  
"Eight years now. Not exactly tranquil, am I?" I smile at him, skimming my own eyes over his handsome face.  
  
Anders wrinkles his face up, and I swear I see a flicker of blue in his honey eyes, "How, how long have you been... free?"  
  
"Free," I softly snort looking about us, "You call this free? If you mean that my tranquility went wrong, then eight years. I've been here for nine. Take that as you will."  
  
He looks over my face again, looks over my shorn head then sighs loudly, "I, have heard it can go wrong. Ali, are you... safe here?"  
  
I snort again shaking my head, "None of us are safe here, Anders. I think I'm the lucky one, I only get beaten from time to time now not like before. Not like the others holed up in those walls," I wave my hand at everything in the Gallows.  
  
"I can get you out if you want," he smiles softly at me, "Be safer out there then in here. Do you know a way under the Gallows?"  
  
"No, I don't. You," I tilt my head at him, "want to get me out? Why?"  
  
Anders puts his hand on my shoulder and smiles again, "So you can be free, Ali," and there was the flicker of blue in his eyes again.  
  
"Maybe, but what freedom does someone like me have? I no longer have magic," I shrug, "What can I do other then just be a useless parchment shuffler?"  
  
"Fight for the freedom of those who have none," his voice got a little deeper, "You are not useless."  
  
I shake my head again then froze when I hear the Knight-Captain asking where I am, "I have to go. Thank you, for talking with with me though. No-one else does," I pull the hood over my head once more, and make my way back in the courtyard.  
  
I can hear the man behind me talk to himself, then heard an agreement of some kind from a second voice, but I shake it off when I put my hands back across my stomach into my sleeves.

* * *

  
  
It was cold as I stood there shivering with the others. It was cold and biting at me trying my hardest to hide in my robes.  
  
Three others stood there shivering just as much, huddling together away from me. Hefit tilts my head again looking over my face and grimaces letting his hand drop.  
  
"Ali, why didn't you come get me?"  
  
I just shrug pushing my hands into my sleeves, "What can you do? What can they do?"  
  
"Makers breath Ali, thats the third time this month!" he looks away from me now, sidling over to the other three huddling together.  
  
A light in the distance freezes us all to the spot, my eyes widen just a fraction as it came closer. I couldn't hear armour clanking but still doesn't mean its not them.  
  
"Hefit, you there?" a womans voice calls in-front of us.  
  
"Yeah I am, got four others with me. Is the healer with you?"  
  
The woman replies with a no, making Hefit sigh out before waving his hand for us all to follow.  
  
I follow them, taking up the rear looking over my shoulder down the tunnels. The woman who held the light stopped us all and looks directly at me, right at the burn on my forehead then sighs shaking her head.  
  
"Need to take that one to him first, then we can get you to the Wounded Coast, alright," she murmurs quietly, then waves us all to follow her.  
  
Once again, someone doesn't talk directly to me, they talk to everyone else around me like I wasn't going to understand what was said. At least Hefit spoke to me, somewhat, when he wasn't on library duty or cleaning latrines.  
  
Cold wind bites at me again, seeping deep into my core while we walked. I haven't been this cold in years, but still it made my face numb when it whipped up again over my robes.  
  
I don't know this way through Kirkwall, even if I did remember it must of been stripped from me when I had the Brand. I remember little as it is, where I came from, who my family were. At least I remember my name and age, that was something.  
  
We all get to another tunnel, she ushers us all in then sighs again looking back at me.  
  
I know what she's thinking when she sees me, but yet, doesn't see me at all but the Brand on my forehead. She felt sorry for me, they all do when they look at us all. I don't know why sometimes.  
  
"Okay, I'll drop this one off and be right back," the woman rolls her shoulder taking my arm, taking me up a flight of wonky wooden steps to a set of two doors. She bangs thrice on one, then waits before knocking thrice again.  
  
The door opens and I can't help but smile at Anders standing there waving her in, "Maker Selby, I said not to kno- Ali? Okay, okay sit on the cot here."  
  
He takes my arm from hers, then sends this Selby woman away. I sit on the cot he points too while he grinds his teeth looking down at me.  
  
"What happened?" he asks me when he kneels looking over my face, the blue flicker was behind his eyes again when I look.  
  
"Not much. Just the usual," I shrug frowning at him, "I dropped a stack of parchment in-front of Ser Karras. I got lucky this time, he told me, he was too busy dealing with something else to punish me fully."  
  
Anders screwed his eyes up tight, taking my hand in his while he healed my wounds, "How many times has he done this to you?"  
  
"Third time this month, two last. I don't have it all written down."  
  
He opens his eyes fully and now I see his eyes are blue swirling pools of water looking at me. I'm not afraid when I look, I'm not afraid when his skin cracks in blue, a pale mist seeping from him when he slowly stands to look down at me.  
  
"This injustice will not stand," his voice echos throughout the room, it echos into my soul like nothing before, "How many more must suffer before anyone acts? How many will Hawke ignore while they are beaten and raped?"  
  
"Who's Hawke?" I ask Anders, but he doesn't answer when he leaves me sitting there on my own, so I ask something else, "Why are you glowing?"  
  
Anders comes back to me with a potion in his hands, passing it to me, "I am Justice, Alison. Hawke was once a friend to us, but no longer. He sits by and does nothing while your fellow mage are taken against their will."  
  
"No different then most people," I sigh out looking down at the ground, "Your a spirit."  
  
"Yes," the deep voice answers me, kneeling down once more, "You are not afraid of us like most are."  
  
I snort tilting my head, "Why would I be afraid? I've seen far worse roam the Gallows. I was once a spirit healer before they took it away."  
  
"Why did they sunder your mind, Alison?" Justice took my hand in his, "Why would they take a healer away from saving?"  
  
"Because I was rude. Because I wanted to be rebellious. I don't remember much from before I got here," I frown looking into the blue swirl pools, "I think my Brand took some of that way. I barely remember where I was from, let alone if I had family. I think my guide saved me from being sundered fully? I don't know."  
  
Justice took my face in his hand, looking over it like Anders had done, like Hefit had done, "Who was your guide, Alison? What they did to you was unjust, to take away someone who would help others," his voice sounded less deep now, but no less echoing.  
  
"Hope," I smile at him, "I was told once, that it was supposed to be compassion a spirit healer has. But I had Hope, and she had me."  
  
"Hope is a strong being from the fade, Alison. You were most lucky indeed to of had one such as she guide you," his eyes dimmed a little, honey brown flickered through the blue still looking at me, "We should continue with your healing."

* * *

  
  
I got to know many people being down in the depths, all of them were wary of me at first when I passed out Elfroot and healing salves. But as time went on, they all got to know me, not the Brand, but me.  
  
I was humbled when I received my first gift from an elderly man. He said I reminded him of his own daughter who was murdered years before. I wanted to return it to him, but he insisted I take it because he had not long left in him. The simple silver bangle was kept on my wrist after that.  
  
I cried when I found him in his home a month later, a rat was trying to eat his face while he laid there dead. Anders comforted me that night when I cried for the first time in years on his shoulder.  
  
I cried again when a young elven woman gave birth to her stillborn child. We both cried together when we held each others hands, her child lain next to her wrapped up like he was just asleep.  
  
I told Anders what happens to the babies born in the Gallows, Justice wasn't happy to hear they got discarded away like rubbish down a chute.  
  
Anders then cried on my shoulder when he told me about his time in Kinloch Hold. How he was put into solitary for a year, that wasn't always solitary. I told him I understand, I used to get visited before I was Branded.  
  
Then I first met this Hawke after four months working with Anders, he ignored me whenever he came into the clinic after.  
  
Hawke one day started to argue with Anders about his reckless behaviour with Justice, I just didn't stand there and listen.  
  
"How dare you," I shouted throwing an empty vial against his head, watching the glass shatter when he stumbled backwards, "Your the one who's reckless from what I hear!"  
  
His eyes go huge looking at me, putting a hand over the bloody wound on his head, "Makers fucking breath, what was that for?"  
  
"Are you deaf as well as daft?" I snark cocking my hip at him, "I'm not repeating myself. And besides," I narrow my eyes at him, "Justice is nothing but a gentleman, whereas your not."  
  
"But- but your tranquil! How in the void," Hawke shook his head looking at the blood on his hand, "can you- That hurt by the way."  
  
I huff out in annoyance picking up a poultice handing it to him, "Good, I hope it did. That should kiss it and make it better. And yes I'm tranquil, somewhat at any rate."  
  
"I had no idea. Maker I'm sorry, I just thought," Hawke then hissed putting the poultice on, "I guess I didn't think. Anders, forgive me? I'm, I'm just- after loosing mother- I'm sorry okay."  
  
After that whenever he came to see us, he would always bring food with a smile at me. Anders would scoff a laugh when the man even brought me into a bear-hug that nearly crushed the life out of me. He was rather a large man as it was, what with the sword strapped to his back an all.  
  
I even got to meet the rest of Anders friends too. I like Varric, always quick with a joke or story. He even gave me a pair of daggers incase I needed them. I even like Isabela and her bawdy attitude, even if she did try and get me into bed one time, much to Anders annoyance.  
  
I didn't much like Merrill though and her reckless use of blood magic. But was interesting to hear about her Dalish heritage. Fenris was, to everyones surprise, a gentleman to me. Always held out his hand when I needed to rise from my chair, or snarled at people who thought they could get away with calling me names. Anders told me Fenris was never like that with anyone whatsoever.  
  
Aveline was another nice one, the Captain of the Kirkwall Guards, and so was Sebastian, the Pious Prince in the Chantry.  
  
But it was Anders I would trundle back to Darktown linked arm in arm with. A belly full of good food and several meads, would always make me smile like I've never smiled before. Anders was smiling and grinning again.  
  
I liked that on him the more he did it. His body was filling out with eating, his hair no longer looked greasy and matted, even his eyes shone like the sun whenever we did something together.  
  
It was eight months of me being free from the Gallows when he told me why he was sad when we first met. It was then when I told him.  
  
"I told Hawke I spent the past three years pining after him," he shrugged rendering animal fat in a huge vat, "he gently as he could said no. Turns out, he was far more interested in Merrill.That was well over a year ago now."  
  
"Blimey, really?" I quirk an eyebrow at him, "I wouldn't of turned you down, you know."  
  
He stuttered against the vat, the spoon clattered on the side when he dropped it looking over his shoulder at me, "Ali, are you bloody serious?"  
  
"Yes I am," I smile at him, "When I first saw you come into the Gallows all those years ago, I kept hoping you'd come back. And you did, time after time after time. I just watched and waited until I couldn't stand there any longer."  
  
Anders looked at me with his mouth open, then blinked several times walking slowly over to me, "Andraste's dimpled arse. So you spent that entire time hoping? Waiting?"  
  
"Yup. I always held out hope that one day I would speak to you, and then I did. Now I'm on the outside, speaking more and I like it," I grin.  
  
"Now I know why she chose you," he chuckled clasping my hands, "Though," he frowned looking at our clasped hands, "I don't even know how old you are."  
  
I couldn't help the bark of a laugh that left my lips, "Anders, I'm thirty two. I got sent to the circle I think a bit late in life. Least I do remember that important bit of information."  
  
It was a month after that we spent our first night together, laying under his covers making love for the first time. I never felt more alive then I did at that moment, and every moment afterwards.  
  
Feelings his lips on mine when we kissed, feeling Justice behind them also. His hands on me, his breath, both of them loving me, for me.  
  
I, was free, truly free.

* * *

  
  
My legs couldn't carry me fast enough when I ran, they couldn't get me down the steps before everything exploded around me. The blast knocked me flat on my face, nearly splitting it open.  
  
The sound was deafening while I curled up in a ball, covering my ears at the sound. Even the screaming was deafening to me. The colour was blinding even behind my eyes when I closed them. It felt like my body broke into pieces then got stitched back together at the same time.  
  
My eyes stung when I blinked them open rolling onto my back to look up at the sky, then put a hand to my mouth were the Chantry once stood. There was nothing left standing when I sat upright, rubbing my stomach.  
  
Bloody void, I was literally just there a few moments before it became rubble on the ground. I ran when I heard Orsino and Meredith were arguing on the Hightown steps, I wanted to see, but now all I see are dead bodies around me.  
  
My throat feels raw when I swallow, my ears ring like the peal of a bell in my head. But I do hear arguing behind me through the noise. So I turn to look down the steps from where I sat, Hawke is bickering with them all down there, Templars stood on one side, Mages on the other with Orsino and Meredith flailing theirs hands up at the steps.  
  
I shake my head when I stand, rubbing my stomach again looking down at them all.  
  
I hear Sebastian call out for Elthina's murderer to be killed them self, but no-one was listening to him when I made my way down the steps.  
  
Then a fight breaks out between them all, I didn't want to remain there so I fled to the other set of steps to Lowtown. And came face to face with the most hideous thing I had ever seen screaming at me.  
  
I couldn't do anything to it, so I just ran back to Darktown in the hidden tunnel. I needed to go back to the clinic, I had to get to Anders and Justice, tell them what happened, what was going on.  
  
They weren't there, only Lirene and the other helpers, scrambling trying to help everyone who came in. I run to the back room flinging the curtain back, but he wasn't there either, and neither was his mothers pillow.  
  
I cried the first night they weren't there, I cried at the dead bodies lining the cots. Men, women, child, mage, Templar and normal a like laying side by side. Dead. There was so much blood coming out those that were living as well.  
  
The stench clawed my nose for five more days, trying to aid everyone, but there was nothing we could do any more when I closed the doors. Everyone else had fled by then.  
  
Anders still wasn't here on the sixth day, so I wept until I could weep no more.  
  
It was on the seventh day I made my way topside, and wept once again at the destruction left behind. More bodies lined the streets, blood and who knows what else was smeared everywhere.  
  
The stench of now decaying bodies overwhelmed my own stench of vomit on the ground. I had to find the others, I had to find Hawke, ask him where Anders was.  
  
But I found no-one in the Hanged Man, but the barkeep told me they had all fled the city because they helped the mages. Maybe Anders had to go with them, he just had to of done, he had to leave me behind for my own safety.  
  
But something gnawed at me when I got to the Hightown steps, something gnawed like a dog chewing on a bone. He wouldn't of done that to me, not now.  
  
I see out the corner of my eye something glinting behind a crate, and my curiosity got the better of me when I went to look. I dropped to my knees at the blood stained coat upon the ground, the feathers were matted together, the coat had a slash in the back. A dagger laid not to far away, one I recognise when I picked up the blood soaked handle, and wept once more.  
  
Anders was dead, Hawke killed him. He was dead and no more when I held the coat against my chest. He was gone, and there was nothing I can do.  
  
I felt nothing but emptiness when I sat in the now empty clinic, even with a full belly, I felt empty. I sat there clutching the coat in my hand staring at nothing while more people rampaged through the city, more mages and Templars fighting everyone throughout the place.  
  
But I sat there on my own, curling up into a ball shivering on the cot as my eyes grew heavy. I was just so tired. I just wanted to sleep.  
  
When I woke, a blanket was lain over me the coat gone, the sound of shuffling feet in the back of the clinic made me start. My eyes hurt again when I blinked them at the blurry figure putting things inside of a pack shakily.  
  
"Anders?" I ask only to have the figure flinch dropping the pack onto the ground.  
  
"No. He's gone," the deep voice said solemnly, "Hawke killed him."  
  
I blink again at the figure, before rubbing my tired eyes. Then felt a pair of hands remove them from my face, tilting upward to the pair of blue eyes looking at me, his face was smeared with blood and soot, his clothes were torn and shredded as much as his arms and legs were.  
  
"Justice? What, whats going on?"  
  
He frowned when he knelt down to me, "I made a mistake. We both did," he took one of my hands and squeezed it, "Anders is gone, but I am not. He, he gave me his body before he died so I could live. But I made a mistake that cost us everything."  
  
"What mistake? What did you-" I wince at the pain in my stomach and rubbed it again.  
  
Justice pulled the blanket away from me, looking down at my belly then sat down heavily on his backside, "You, you are with child!" his eyes go wide looking up at me.  
  
"I know that," I snap at him, "What mistake? What did you do?"  
  
"We blew the Chantry, Alison. I thought it would bring justice, but," he swallowed like any human would, putting his hand on my belly shaking slightly, "it did not. Anders died because of what we did. I don't know what to do."  
  
I started to weep again looking down at him, looking down at the hand on my belly. They, blew the Chantry up. They both started this whole thing and now Anders was dead, Justice was now in full control of his body caked in grime.  
  
I wasn't angry though, I didn't feel hurt looking at him, all I could feel was hope swell inside me. We stood on the precipice of change one that I was witness to.  
  
"We have to go," I murmur putting my hand over his "but you have to clean up first."  
  
It was two days after that we fled the city into the Marches, I didn't know where I was going but he did when he held my hand. We would find a boat and go to Ferelden. I don't know if I have ever been there, or if I even came from there, but it was better then nothing.

* * *

  
  
The fighting never stopped for years to come, it spread and spread like a tumor everywhere around us. Brother against brother, sister against mother, it hurt to watch when ever we came across it.  
  
But we holed ourselves away on the Storm Coast, inside of an old hut that was abandoned sometime ago. We made it ours years before to raise mine and Anders daughter in freedom.  
  
Justice had become a father to her, loved her as much as a father would. And I loved him back as much.  
  
I was happy again, I felt free with them both once more.  
  
We spent years there living, loving, growing. I even taught Justice how to write properly, how to eat using utensils. It was like teaching two children at once, but I didn't mind it at all.  
  
We even made friends with a group of people who called themselves the Blades of Hessarian. I made healing salves and Elfroot potions, they gave us food and clothes in exchange for it all.  
  
"Alison? Why is there a cat sitting outside out door?" Justice chuckled one day, pointing at a rather moth eaten orange tabby with golden eyes looking up at us, with a hopeful face.  
  
I just shrug my shoulders ushering the soaked thing inside, "Looks like it swam the ocean. Poor thing."  
  
Andrea of course was the first one to scoop the moth eaten soaked cat up, hugging it close to her chest. The cat just purred loudly rubbing its face against hers. We kept the cat after that calling it Buttons.  
  
It was several weeks after that we heard about the explosion at the conclave killing everyone, well all but one who survived. Who became the Herald of Andraste.  
  
We wept together over all those lost people, mage, Templar, clerics, even the Divine. So many lost for a senseless act that could of brought peace but only brought death once more.  
  
But life went on, the Blades and us still exchanged goods until a group of people took them over. A group of people I had never heard of: The Inquisition, several more months after the conclave happened.  
  
This Inquisition then found their way to our home, one in particular, had a glowing hand looking at the four of us. His mouth flapped open and shut, not knowing what to say when a bald headed elf stepped forward and offered his hand to me.  
  
"I am Solas," he smiled looking at me and not the Brand, "We weren't expecting anyone to live here."  
  
"Well we are. What do you people want? Haven't you done enough with killing our friends," I grind out.  
  
"The Blades?" the one with the glowing hand managed to say, "Maker, they killed our scouts!"  
  
Justice huffed picking both Andrea and Buttons up, "That maybe so. But did that justify almost killing them all?"  
  
This Solas looked Justice over and stepped back several paces, taking the man with the glowing hand back with him, "Herald, that was once a spirit of Justice. If it is who I believe it is, I think a certain person should know."  
  
And so, we made our way with this Herald to a place called Skyhold in the mountains. A place that teemed with people going about their business.  
  
I was in awe looking at both mage and Templar working together in peace. I felt hope swell inside me again the longer we stayed there. Even Varric was there, shocked at the four of us, but he was there.  
  
But then, then I came face to face with Hawke again, and so did Justice and Andrea. His eyes were huge looking at both of them, but he looked old now. Grey and white started to fleck his once black beard and hair, his eyes looked broken and hurt when we spoke.  
  
"Maker I had no idea. If, if I'd of known," he cried looking at Andrea, "but he- they both-" he looked at Justice now, looking over the mans shorn hair, his blue eyes and filled out muscular frame, "You changed him."  
  
Justice dipped his head, "He changed me also, Hawke. I made a mistake that changed everything. We both did. But I have a daughter I love as my own. I have a woman who I cherish everyday. It was my fault he died, but he gave himself up to save me."  
  
"Wheres Merrill?" I ask him, Hawkes eyes just grew sadder and more broken when he looked down at the ground.  
  
"Shes gone. She turned trying to save a group of elves fighting Templars. I have nothing left any more."  
  
It was several weeks after that Hawke never came back. The Herald had to make a choice in the fade, and left him behind when he begged to be left there. Varric was broken instead now.  
  
I even got asked if I wanted my tranquillity reversed, but I refused. I've lived years without my magic, I've lived years with the Brand. It was a part of me now, as I was of it. But I still held out hope that others would take the gift, even if there weren't many tranquil left any more.  
  
Andrea came into her magic just before the breach was sealed, the little ball of light fluttered around her head like a firefly when she slept. I wept with joy when I watched her, and so did Justice.  
  
She would never know the circle, she would never know the Brand or the horrors within the walls I once knew. She, was born free.  
  
I hope Anders, where ever he maybe, is proud of his daughter. I hope he watches over her everyday as her magic grows, knowing, that he did this for her. That Justice did that for her too.  
  
And that Justice and I, are now married in the eyes of the Maker and his bride. That no more, will there ever be a denial of rights for anyone. That a mage can now be free to choose to marry, to raise their child in peace and love, never fear them being taken from the grasp, never Branded, never hurt any more.  
  
I just hope he's proud of what he started all those years ago, to finally see it all come true with my own eyes.  
  
Thank you, my love, my friend, for everything. If I had never spoke to you that day, I wouldn't be standing here, alive.  
  
Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously, I just had this buzzing around my head like a dang fly. What if the Rite goes wrong every now and again? What if the mage who's a spirit healer, has their guide save them in someway? Stop them being fully tranquil.
> 
> What if Justice actually took over Anders body fully when Hawke killed them?
> 
> GAH! I dunno if I actually want to flesh this all out one day or not. But for now, its a one-shot. I hope you like it.


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